The Happy List, End of Summer 2005 edition

A long one, so I can get all the summer things in. In no particular order.

• Taking the Staten Island ferry at sunset
• The first moment when you step out of air conditioning into the heat
• Wireless DSL
• Thai food, especially pineapple fried rice and Pad See Euw
• High-thread-count bedsheets, fluffy towels, and down duvets
• Bathrobes
• Finding a movie you haven't watched in years on cable
• Taking a unscheduled day off of work
• The Cyclone at Coney Island
• The quick surge of waves around your feet as you walk on the beach
• The Brooklyn Bridge. Walking across it, looking at it, whatever. Its mere existence.
• Brooklyn Bridge Park / Empire Fulton Ferry Park
• Picnics -- or actually eating al fresco, period
• Having hot dogs, french fries, and cold beer at a baseball game
• The goofy between-innings activities stadiums sponsor at baseball games (especially small-time ones)
• Lying under a tree on a sunny day, reading
• Ski lifts
• Miniature golf
• Sirius satellite radio, particularly its all-Elvis channel
• Whitewater rafting
• Lingering over dinner, tea, coffee, or drinks with friends
• Having a hotel room all to yourself
• Camper shoes, even just to look at, and all sparkly shoes, especially when they're on sale
• The ten minutes after you finish a really good book or movie, when you're still in a trance about What Happened and What It Means
• My digital camera
• Bar trivia
• Fine stationery
• Good pens
• Taking tours of interesting/significant places
• Commuter trains
• The songs "Love Train" by the O'Jays, "Last Train to Clarksville" by Cassandra Wilson, and "The Book of Love" by the Magnetic Fields
• Risotto and couscous
• High teas, particularly the warm scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam
• The mariachi singers on the uptown 6 train (I never see them coming downtown)
• Bryant Park -- tied with Cherry Hill for my favorite place in Manhattan
• Cooking for friends
• Being cooked for by friends
• My banana oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies
• Those cool cello cases with wheels on the bottom, and seeing someone wheeling them down the street or on the subway
• The flamboyantly dressed dancers in the West Indian Day parade
• The music from the parade shaking the whole neighborhood, making even the whitest person there (that is, me) groove a little
• Discovering new cuisines (Trinidadian, in this instance)
• People playing cricket and kickball in Prospect Park (and practicing tap-dancing!)
• Katy, Rachel, Melissa, and Ginny, who are all brilliant, kind, funny, beautiful women who I am lucky to know
• My terrific family
• Living in New York City
• Alcoholic cupcakes